In the aftermath of recent incidents of child-molesters getting extremely light sentences (a man who repeatedly raped a girl over 4 years, from when she was seven, getting two months in jail, and a Massachusetts schoolteacher who had sex with a student of his six weeks before the boy turned sixteen getting no jail time), New Hampshire's lawmakers are paying a bit more attention to a law that had been working its way through the system. With this extra motivation, it now looks like the Child Protection Act is going to pass. It mandates a minimum 25 years for even first-time sex offenders who abuse children, along with those who seriously injure a child. Further, the minimum sentence for second-degree murder of a child under 13 will be 35 years.

In a similar spirit, lawmakers are also shooting down a proposed "beverage tax" that was intended to provide more money on water resources.

The theme here is simple: protect the people, but don't ever forget that they also need protection from the government, too.